O.C. LETTERS : Scared by ‘Jurassic Park’? C’mon

I’m 12 years old and have just been to see “Jurassic Park,” and both my 7-year-old brother, Jesse, and I agree it is not as scary as the newspapers, like yours, and the news shows say. So please stop making such a big deal about it. Let people judge for themselves.

CAITLIN KURVINK

Huntington Beach

Appease Porridge?

Want to see if you can get a war going among the financially pressed art museums of Orange County? Benjamin Epstein apparently does. In an article entitled “A Question of Artistic Balance” (June 8), he compares three exhibits: Nam June Paik at Newport Harbor Museum, Tibetan art at the Bowers, “Kustom Kulture” at Laguna Art Museum. Like Goldilocks, Epstein finds one too hot, one too cold, and the third just right.

His choice of the “middle ground” seems to have been helped by the stridently voiced opinions of warring curators and museum spokespersons. Non-Western art, says Newport’s curator, is for us “the romantic other; balm on a burn” (too cold). Modern art, counters a Bowers spokesperson, is “rupturing, stridency, revolution, destruction” (too hot). The solution for Epstein: compromise. Laguna Art Museum’s kitsch car-culture show has the assurance of the familiar and the charm of the unusual” (just right). P-u-l-eeese!

The best thing Laguna’s curator could find to say of “Kustom Kulture” was that the show was “germane to the ordinary person” and of “art historical relevance.” By asking whether the show was “cultural modern art or modern cultural art,” Epstein stumped the curator. And me too. Does Epstein even know what he means? Would an answer help either of us appreciate the art?

Incidentally, I find it surprising and discouraging that museum spokespersons should display such alarming cross-purposes or allow themselves to be seen at odds. Has the financial drought turned them into hungry bears? Or did Epstein’s search for “balance” distort their comments? But my main objection to Epstein’s article remains the writer’s Goldilocks mentality. So he likes his porridge not too hot, not too cold--kind of PC porridge--even if that means lukewarm! Do we have to?

Remember the bears apparently enjoyed their porridge at different temperatures. And even then (apparently) could exercise taste.

GEORGE TAPLEY

Costa Mesa

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